Games and Music the Preferred App Categories Among Older Teens

A majority of “Millennial teens” (16-19) say that a recommendation from a friend or family member would influence them to try a new mobile application, making this a bigger influencer than social media recommendations (35%) or an online video (34%), finds Refuel Agency in a recent survey [download page]. The results support earlier research among the 18-64 population, which similarly found word-of-mouth to be a key driver of app downloads.

In its study, Refuel examines a wide variety of digital behavior among older teens, including the types of apps that they’re most likely to download and use. Games (70%) and music (59%) led in those popularity rankings, followed by social networking (49%), video/photography (35%) and book (29%) apps.

Narrowing the analysis to messaging apps, the survey reveals that half of respondents often use Facebook Messenger, slightly ahead of the 47% often using Instagram and Snapchat.

Indeed, Facebook remains a highly popular platform for teens, as other research has found. In the Refuel Agency study, teens were asked which sites or apps they spend most of their time on (multiple responses allowed): Facebook (51%) was second only to YouTube (64%), and was slightly ahead of both Instagram (45%) and Snapchat (42%).

Still, YouTube’s popularity endures, as three-quarters of older teens say they use it on a regular basis. Other streaming platforms often used by teens include Netflix (55%), Pandora (39%), Spotify (24%) and Google Play (24%).

In other survey findings:

Apple tops Samsung and Google as the top brand that Millennial teens say they cannot live without;

Teens estimate spending almost twice as much time daily using their cellphones and smartphones than watching TV (6.3 hours vs. 3.5 hours);

Cellphones and smartphones (55%) outrank computers/laptops (18%) and other devices including the TV (7%) as teens’ most important device;

Musicians/bands (43%), TV shows (43%) and movies (42%) are the categories that older teens are most likely to follow or like on social media; and

More than one-third (37%) of teens say they have a lot or some influence on their parents’ electronics purchases.

About the Data: The report is based on a survey of 684 qualified respondents aged 16 to 19. The survey was fielded from June 3-9, 2015 and was executed by Refuel Agency with a national panel provided by SurveyMonkey.